Category Archives: Creativity Blog

I am sorry that I haven’t written an entry in a week. Last Friday, I was originally going to post a video I made at home, but my site doesn’t support video files (unless if I get premium plan, but I don’t want to spend more money). Not only that, but I didn’t think of anything else. Now, I have something to say on my Creativity Blog. And tomorrow will begin another two-day break. But don’t worry, I am back.

Recently, I was writing a story I would like to get published someday. Inspired by National Treasure and the Sly Cooper Series, I wanted to make a story that is based on that. However, there is no enemy hunter team or stealing of important US artifacts. And it won’t be completely like Sly Cooper either. Right now, I am writing the second part of the story. There are 8 parts, with an average of 4 to 5 chapters per part, except for the first two, which have 7 chapters each.

The plot of the story is that there are four boys that wanted a valuable Pueblo treasure called the Golden Ocarina, which has a value of $10 million. Their goal is to get it before 2015 and before somebody else could while interacting with the supernatural as much as they could in order to turn the Pueblo city into a tourist attraction. Stuff they needed were archeological and combat tools, magical devices for survival, and the help from a team of inventors.

In case if you’re wondering, here are the eight parts of the story and their summaries:

Fundraiser Week – the first step to getting the Golden Ocarina is looking for a team of inventors. The only team of inventors they know in their home town refuses to help unless if they merge with them. The only way they could file a merger is if the boys join their school’s program called Fundraiser Week. As a result, the boys were forced to join in order to win the inventors on their team.

The Case of the Missing Blondestone – the inventors finally joined, but a lot of work is needed to be done. One of the members of the team of inventors that joined the boys owned a magical device that gives blondes superpowers. It is necessary to finding the temple of the Golden Ocarina, but the owner got robbed. Worse yet, so is the blondestone. As a result, the boys and girls went on a CSI like adventure to learn the culprit behind the robbery. This is the only part that resembles a mystery novel.

The Golden Bird – the blondestone has been retrieved, and the guilty party was apprehended. The entire team went to the next step: building a form of transportation. They needed a car that can fly, fit all eight members, and land properly. This was needed to find both the Golden Ocarina and the four treasures needed to survive the temple. They had to gather the parts needed to make the invention before they start building.

Sapphire of Shining – after retrieving the blondestone and building the Golden Bird, the team of eight begin hunting for the four treasures of vitality. The first of the four treasures is the Sapphire of Shining, the gem that has a power to illuminate an entire area. It’s more effective than a torch and a flashlight, and no other resources are needed. The treasure is hidden in the upper Rockies of Colorado.

Emerald of Entering – the next of the four treasures needed is the Emerald of Entering. It is powerful enough to open doors without using any physical tools for prying open doors. The treasure is hidden in the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona.

Ruby of Riddles – the third of the four treasures is the Ruby of Riddles. The purpose is to translate texts or figure out more clues to finding the Golden Ocarina. The treasure is hidden around the beaches of Florida.

Peridot of Peace – the last treasure needed before finding the Golden Ocarina is the Peridot of Peace. The special power it grants is to wipe out evil supernatural forces that may haunt the teens find the Golden Ocarina. The treasure is hidden in the swamps of Louisiana.

The Hunt for the Golden Ocarina – after collecting the four treasures, they were finally ready to do what they want most, finding the Golden Ocarina. They used their tools and treasures to navigate the temple, fight evil spirits, and locate the Golden Ocarina. All the research and conversations have been proven to be worth it because of the dangers of the temple.

In my story, I would hide a few Animal Crossing references, as well as references to my experiences on Bell Tree. A major example is the raffle. The conflict between the main character’s uncle and the host of the Halloween Raffle is the same as the conflict between me and the host of the giveaway last October. I even had similar plot elements when someone cheated in the raffle, the time setting, and the host’s reaction to the blogging.

Remember when I say to not steal my ideas. This is definitely a no-no when it comes to stealing. I am still writing this book. I’m just leaking some parts and details. You’ll never see the full story. Whatever I based it after isn’t meant to steal from them. There are other major premises that I have no interest into embedding in my story.

As this is my third entry to my Creativity Blog, I’m going to share another entry I written on Bell Tree. I came up with a video game that is inspired by Roulette, Medieval Times (restaurant), and ticket arcade games. Last year in 2014, I went to Dave & Busters with my mom while visiting Kansas. This was NOT my first time I went to Dave & Busters, but it was my first time I went in five years. I noticed a few changes. One is that they no longer print out tickets. Every ticket you earn, it connects to your card like Wi-Fi. I thought this was a good idea because there’s less trees to cut down, less risk of someone stealing your tickets, and less to carry as you walk in the arcade.

Now here is the deal. My arcade game idea is where you can pick a number between 1 and 24 and spin the wheel. Like Roulette, numbers have denominations in color and number type (odd and even). Not like Roulette, you can only pick one number at a time, as it goes to different teams and alliances.

In order to play Pick-a-Number, the first thing to do is to swipe the card (or insert tokens based on how advanced the technology is) to give yourself a credit. The more swipes you give it, the higher your winnings will be. However, you can have only up to four credits, and all of your credits get used at once on each spin. Here are the base numbers for what the 1x prize is:

One credit – 1 ticket

Two credits – 2 tickets

Three credits – 5 tickets

Four credits – 10 tickets

Once you give yourself credits, your next step is to pick one of the numbers on the touchscreen. There are four rows and six columns. All numbers on the same team are in the same column. You can pick only one number at a time. Picking a second number deselects your first number, so pick wisely before you hit the SPIN button. The wheel doesn’t really spin, but the lights around the wheel move as in a chasing light position. When the light stops, the number it lands on is the winning number. After one spin, the game is over.

The odds of winning have different earnings. When you pick a number, it also picks related numbers, but you won’t get as much tickets as you do if your number wins. Related numbers are numbers of the same color and same number type.

There are three colors in the game, red green, and blue. Here are the numbers to each color:

Red – 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22

Green – 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23

Blue – 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24

All numbers of the same type (odd or even) and same color are on the same team. Selecting one number selects all numbers on the same team, same color, and same number type. Here are the prizes of if the wheel hits your number:

Same number – 100x the base number of tickets.

Different number, but same team – 50x the base number of tickets.

Same color, but different team – 20x the base number of tickets.

Different color, but same number type – 10x the base number of tickets.

Different color and different type – no tickets.

There are no biased algorithms, so every number has a 1/24 chance of landing, but some may be more often than others, but that’s only because of a randomizer.

Here is an example of what I can win if 20 is my number with three credits:

Wheel lands on 20 – 500 tickets.

Wheel lands on a green even number other than 20 – 250 tickets.

Wheel lands on a green odd number – 100 tickets.

Wheel lands on a red even or blue even number – 50 tickets.

Wheel lands on a red odd or blue odd number – 0 tickets.

As a result, you have a 1/3 chance of losing, 1/3 chance of only getting 10 times the base ticket prize, and 1/3 chance of getting more tickets. Of the 1/3 chance of getting more, there is a 1/2 chance of getting 20 times the base ticket prize, 3/8 of getting 50 times the base ticket prize, and 1/8 of getting the jackpot.

I could come up with a Pick-a-Number deluxe version or a Pick-a-Number extended version, but right now, I go with the base.

For a finale to Week three’s entries, I am going to go over another idea out of creativity. Although I like to write ideas, they will never come real (except for my Swamp Cafe idea, hopefully). Future City is an amusement park that is all science-fiction themed. Not just sci-fi, but all about the future. Robots, advanced machinery, spaceships, all of the futuristic stuff. As a fan of the science-fiction stuff, I came up with an idea to fit with the futuristic theme. I might even go over promotions. Right now, I don’t know how businesses work, so this isn’t a business plan. It’s an idea, a concept for an amusement park. I’m writing for fun. Try not to steal my idea, even if there’s no guarantee if it comes real. I might get involved in running an amusement park in the future, but you may never know. I shared this idea on my blog on Bell Tree. Maybe I should share it here too, but only re-written to make it better.

When I was 11 years old, I started playing a game called Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, the sequel of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon. The RCT franchise is the most popular of the Tycoon franchises, made by many companies and publishers that don’t work together. It’s not just a game where you can build your own amusement parks, but you even get to make the coasters as well. RCT2 is the one I played. I built several parks, including buildings, rides, and many sorts of things. This is what sparked my interest into building amusement parks, so I know a little more about amusement parks than just Disneyland or Disney World. And Future City is one of the ideas for an amusement park.

Future City is divided into four different worlds, each having their own entry to the park. In each world, all rides have to stick with the same motif, but not the whole park. I could come up with an amusement park with all worlds having their own themes, such as modern, western, medieval, and future, but I prefer to go over a close-up on the future. Each world has ten rides, three other attractions, and a few kiosks. There are only two featured rides. They have an asterisk in their name.

New Civilization

The world on the south is the first one – New Civilization. Although the park has four entries, the grand entry is at this region. This whole area resembles a future city with skyscrapers made of colored metals, like in red, orange, green, and blue. It’s not all brown and gray. There are decorative lights, windows, doors, and hovercars, with all of these (except the lights) are not real. Some buildings aren’t for show only. They have rides and attractions.

Rides:

Boat of the Future – more like a pirate ship ride, but with the future theme and no pirates.

City Tours* – a car ride with hovercar shaped cars. They are different to the roller coaster with the car model since all cars are enclosed. You get to see the vision of the future.

Future Theater – a 3-D cinema where you can see future shows.

Glow Coaster* – hyper twister coaster that is entirely indoors. Every track piece has glowing tunnels. It starts out with a lift hill with slow chasing lights in pink, purple, and blue going down the hill as the the car goes up. The higher, the dimmer. At the last section of the lift hill and the first drop (also the tallest drop), the ride is pitch-dark. There are mostly helixes and drops throughout the ride, but you get to move through these disco tunnels. Lights flash from medium to medium-slow speed to show excitement and to prevent seizures.

Hover Car Twister – similar to these twister rides or mixer rides at the fairground, but you are sitting in a hovercar, spinning around a satellite tower.

Laser Tag – a laser tag stadium. What kind of futuristic amusement park is it without one?

Maze Tower – three-story tower with mazes. One with steel walls, one with holographic walls that change sectors, and one with laser fence walls. Each floor also has a checkpoint before the end.

Motor Boats – this is a boat ride with futuristic boats. You get to ride over a lake bounded by futuristic homes.

Observatory of the Future – Not really a ride, but more like a tower you can go up and down on, with the museum on the top floor.

Terror in the Skies – small coaster with hover car shaped cars. Similar to City Tours, but more resembling a roller coaster than a gentle ride while cars aren’t enclosed.

Other attractions:

Future City Buffet – Future City’s only buffet attraction, with American food being sold here.

Ice Cream Tower – a food attraction that sells only ice cream. It resembles a tall tower, but you can only get it on one floor.

Future City Emporium – the largest gift shop in Future City. Sells everything sci-fi related, but some of the space themed, digital themed, and industrial themed items aren’t sold here.

Other information:

Future City has a monorail station that takes you to all four worlds. The New Civilization theme looks like a future train station. You also have a bus that can take you to two places in New Civilization. Colored glow lamps, colored metal seats, and colored steel trash cans are along the paths.

Galactic World

The world on the east is the heart of science fiction. Everything is under the space theme. Glass tunnels resembling a lunar base covers every path. All rides are indoors and not under the glass tunnels.

Rides:

Black Hole – part of a building that is known as the Space Carnival, Black Hole is a tilt-a-whirl ride where the platform looks like a black hole, as the seats look like asteroids. You even hear blowing sounds as you ride.

Flying Saucers – this ride is another ride in the Space Carnival. It is supposed to be a dodgems/bumper car ride with UFO shaped cars.

Gravitron – even another ride in the Space Carnival. It’s a UFO shaped ride where you can feel a centrifugal force.

Lunar Base – Future City’s only junior coaster. It’s still a coaster, but only less thrilling. You get to ride through a lunar base. This is not in the Space Carnival.

Lunar Carousel – similar to a very famous amusement park ride, the carousel. You get to ride rockets that go up and down. Part of the Space Carnival.

Solar System* – a basic car ride where you get to ride a space shuttle-shaped car. It’s not just a gentle ride, but an educational one as well.

Space Rider* – part of another completely indoor building. There are loops, corkscrews, and helixes. The ride starts out on a lunar base, and you get to ride through future towns and the galaxy. There are planets, asteroids, and stars in both the background and ride props. The coaster cars are shaped like rockets too.

Space Rings – a Space Carnival ride, where you get to stand in the rings that spin in three dimensions.

Space Wheel – the last of the Space Carnival rides on this list. This is a futuristic Ferris Wheel.

Spaceship Escape – a car ride that takes place on a huge spaceship. The story is about a person imprisoned on a spaceship, and is trying to escape. Several ride events and animatronic figures are seen on this ride.

Other attractions:

Space Pizzeria – individual attraction in Galactic World. It only sells pizza and drinks, but has more variety of pizzas than the other pizza-selling places in Future City.

Space Gift Store – the gift shop in the Galactic World. It’s more emphasized on space toys. Part of a building conjoined to the Space Pizzeria.

Carnival Games – there are eight carnival games in the Space Carnival building.

Other information:

Future City has a monorail station that takes you to all four worlds. The Galactic World theme looks like a space base. There are only seven buildings with every attraction inside them. Star lamps, rocket-shaped trash cans, and metal benches are the path goods in this world.

Pixel City

The world on the north is about the first step towards the future – computers. More like a Tron themed section, but not containing too many references to Tron. It’s a virtual reality themed section, otherwise known as the glow theme or digital theme. Glow strips on walls, computer parts as scenery, holographic grids, data decorations, and geometric shapes are the key decorations of this world. Most attractions are in poorly-lit buildings with glow colors of any color.

Rides:

Cable City – you get to ride microchip shaped cars inside a giant CPU tower. There are giant microchips, energy tunnels, data bridges, strange glowing computer symbols, and wires are part of the ride. The purpose of the ride is to view holographic screens that show videos of any event in Future City.

Cyber Arcade – Future City’s only arcade. It could be anywhere, but best fit in Pixel City. Some games have tickets for redemption prizes, but others don’t.

Digital Galaxy* – another completely indoor ride. The building is mostly empty with a glowing grid floor, glowing walls, and cyber-themed city on the inside, like in Tron. The main part of the ride is the indoor inverted roller coaster that hangs from the track and goes around several drops and inversions. It’s like Space Rider, but only digital themed, on an inverted track, and floorless.

Digital Rockets – a thunder bobs ride where the cars shape like rockets.

Digital Turns – a swinging inverter ship that looks like a computer’s interior on the inside.

Glow Putt – a large glow-putt course. The only difference is that it uses cyber-themed buildings and geometrical shapes as props.

Glow Pyramid – a walkthrough attraction with a playground at the end. It’s basically a fun house like attraction.

Launch Tower – a drop tower ride. It is indoors, but you can see what the tower looks like as it feels like the outdoors. Another glow-themed ride.

Pixelated* – an 8-bit themed haunted hotel ride where you can see 8-bit images that can either scare you or entertain you. Even 8-bit music is being played.

Sea of Information – a splash boats ride that is similar to Cable City and Digital Galaxy, but only with medium intensity and with water. Not only that, but the holographic screens are not there.

Other attractions:

Digital Cafe – a restaurant with seating reservations. Robot cars deliver the food to you, but you can’t see them since the 8-bit screens cover their tracks. They’ll stop for you to pick up the food, and go when they need to deliver the food or return to the kitchen.

Digital Bakery – a bakery that sells baked goods. Still has the cyber theme.

Future City has a monorail station that takes you to all four worlds. The section in Pixel City looks like a small train station, but there are lights that turn on at night. Metal posts, back-less benches, and trash cans are all over this area. At night, they have lights that turn on, providing a glow.

Robot Industrial Land

The world on the west has another major component in sci-fi – robots. It’s a factory themed part of the park. There are some indoor rides, but mostly outdoor rides. Thrill rides and scenic robots are all over this region.

Rides:

Cogwheel of Corruption – the base plate looks like a gear, but the ride is a roundup ride.

Conveyer Belt – a zipper ride.

Evil Machine – a twirling like machine. You can move upside down or right side up, but spins around. The ride is very scary, hence the name.

Factory Tours – pretty much like a minecart ride, but in machine-shaped cars going through giant machines.

Factory of Terror* – a shooting gallery like car ride, where you get to shoot at the robots as you ride.

Industrial Rally – a go-karts attraction, and the only one of Future City. You race through a factory-like place.

Machine of Terror* – twister roller coaster that takes place inside a machine. The scary machine scenery and the loops, corkscrews, drops, and high speed makes this ride scarier. But to be serious, this is a very safe ride.

Robot Hand – a robotic claw ride.

Robot Theater – an animatronics theater.

Time Machine – a motion simulator ride where you get to see the visions of the past.

Other attractions:

Robot Courtyard – a food court where you can get any food you want.

Gadget Gift Shop – this gift shop has emphasis on advanced machinery toys and stuff in the amusement park.

Mechanic Mansion – an activity center where you can make crafts and build with robotics

Other information:

Future City has a monorail station that takes you to all four worlds. The Robot Industrial Land theme looks like a factory. There aren’t very many buildings. The lampposts have gears, the benches look like robots, and the trash cans have the robot looks.

Promotions

I’ve been thinking that when a holiday comes up, there should be some kind of promotions or redecorating of the park to fit with the holiday. There might even be some contests in each section of the park. Prizes include free ride admissions, free food, free gifts, and a pass to the front of the line.

That’s all I can say. If you like to comment, feel free to do so. But if you’re gonna be rude or telling me to stop blogging, please do not post.

Happy Friday everyone! As I said before, every Friday is when I’ll write an entry on creativity or a logic problem. As it’s an odd week, I’ll do creativity. Back on the Bell Tree, I written blogs on creative ideas every five entries. I may share some of the entries I written there.

As you see, my dream job is to run a restaurant. I have been planning on what my restaurant was going to be about last year. Normally, in my Creativity Blog, my ideas aren’t guaranteed to come true, but this is one of them that I want to come true. Inspired by a defunct restaurant on one of the streets in my town and the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland, I decided to come up with one on my own. It won’t be exactly after, but it’s more in the rural side of the swamp. Swamp Café is based after Louisiana, hence, it’s a Cajun-themed restaurant.

I would have Cajun foods sold, but my main idea besides having a good management is having a good design. Would you want to have a theme-less restaurant with corrugated walls and roof with food like what I’m describing? Inside, I would make it look like a swamp.

The entry to the restaurant on the inside, where customers can wait for their reservations, would look like some house built in the swamp. More like a boathouse, but no water inside. The reservations can be made in the “porch” (a feature of the swamp house on the inside). Next to the restaurant entry is part of the same cabin, but that’s a gift shop. Like Rainforest Café and Cracker Barrel, a gift shop would be part of the restaurant. On the other side of the restaurant entry in the same “house”, I will have the restrooms.

Away from the porch would be the swamp. The walkways and floors for the tables would be made after wood we see on deckings. There are fences to keep the customers inside the walkways. I would have four seating areas, and I would have a lot of scenery. There are ceiling lights that are bright, but they are only used during emergencies or post-closing cleaning. The actual lighting for the restaurant will be on the post lanterns along the fences. They are bright enough for the waiters and customers to see where they’re going, but dark enough to not provide illumination across the entire restaurant, giving it a swamp night ambience. Outside the deckings where people can sit at will be a two-foot deep artificial lake (with real water) around the restaurant. It’s like an indoor swimming pool, but swimming is prohibited. There are fountains and drains in the artificial lake indoors to keep the water flowing and not keep the same old water. Inside the water would be animatronic animals. I would even add music and sound effects through the restaurant’s speakers.

The four dining areas will have the same service, but different scenery. One of them is in the center. While there are deckings, there is also a spot with a big but artificial willow tree. On the deckings around the tree are some tables. The ones adjacent to the fences would be the booth tables as the ones closer to the center would be regular tables. Another dining area would be left of the center (assuming that the front swamp house with gift shop was at the front). That would be resembling a dock. All tables are just tables. No booths. The square dock is wider than the bridge to the dock. The dining area to the right would be another swamp house. This time, all tables in this area are inside a house within a building. The tables are booth tables as the ambience of the area is a cabin ambience. The last dining area is towards the back. Like the center, the tables are mixed. The area is supposed to be another porch, but part of the third house, which is the kitchen. Along with the dining area is a bar.

The design of the restaurant is what I want to show the most, but the food should also match the design. Like I said before, it will have Cajun cooking. The menus will have freshwater fish and other creatures. It would also have other classic Louisiana recipes, such as gumbo. I’ll even have some chicken, shrimp, and salads.

I have yet to decide what foods to serve and what management to come up with. Right now, I am a college student, but I have to go through more of the hard classes before I can start going through the business classes. When I’m done working in college, I’ll be ready to start a business.